N.Y. Rangers: Look What the Blueshirts Did to the Flyers, Again

From the desk: RAISE GRESCHNER WITH THE GREATS

THURSDAY

Rangers 8

Flyers  3

FINAL

That Piano Falling Out Of The Sky Has a Flyers Logo On It

Philadelphia is flying in a bad way.  Since returning to the ice on Feb. 18 from a four-game quarantine, the Flyers are 7-10-2 and fading fast.  

They were borderline eligible to play this game.  

Thursday's defeat against the Rangers was their fourth straight loss and fifth in their last six games.  Moreover, they've surrendered five goals or more in seven of 19 contests.  On March 17, the Rangers shut out the Flyers by a whopping 9-0 final; on Thursday, another lopsided 8-3 final score.  All told, the Rangers have taken two of three and outscored the Flyers through five games by a 27-14 margin.  For Philly, there's no hiding from the Rangers' 17-3 goal advantage in their last two games together.

Mika Zibanejad strikes again, with three power-play goals along with three assists for six points.  That makes twelve points in his last two games against the Flyers.

Otherwise, the Rangers scored three times in the first, three times in the second, and twice more in the third period.  Pissed off Pavel Buchnevich scored once at even strength on a second time while shorthanded just 0:33 seconds into the third period.  Ryan Strome actually opening the scoring at 8:01 of the first period en route to a four-point night, and my guy Brendan Lemieux assisted on K'Andre Miller's second-period goal.  Filip Chytil capped off the scoring with his fifth goal of the season.

Oh, and Adam Fox had five assists ... just saying.

The Rangers welcomed back goalie Igor Shesterkin who sustained a groin injury exactly three weeks ago.  He faced 44 shots on goal, making nine special team saves and 41 saves overall.